Jon Ciser of Manasquan tills the fields of the Merrick Farm in Howell owned by Susan Keymer and her husband, Juan George, of Howell. / (STAFF PHOTOS: BOB BIELK)

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RAJU CHEBIUM

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — The new version of the farm bill making its way through Congress like a vine climbing a trellis goes beyond agriculture. Not only does it deal with what you eat and how food gets to your table, it also helps millions of low-income Americans feed their families, helps rural America survive economically and protects farmland from sprawl in urbanized states like New Jersey.

But Garden State lawmakers say the farm bill, the latest version of which took effect in 2002 and cost taxpayers $55 billion last year, neglects many of the state's 9,900 farms.

The bulk of crop subsidies go to growers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and other commodity crops in the Midwest and South, they say, leaving out Garden State fruit and vegetable growers. And the proposed legislation does little to promote organic farming, a burgeoning industry in New Jersey.

The state's congressional delegation is part of a broad effort to overhaul the way food is grown by promoting locally harvested produce, boost investment in organic agriculture, prevent Congress from sending the majority of grower subsidies to other states and ramp up land conservation spending.

More than 200 House and Senate members from 39 other states and an array of agricultural and environmental groups and think-tanks are teaming up to pressure Congress to funda- mentally change the farm bill, which expires in September.

Every five years, new pressures are put on House and Senate agriculture committee members who write the farm bill. This year, with so many legislators uniting behind alternatives to the way the government funds agriculture and conservation, some of the proposals New Jersey lawmakers are pushing are bound to become law, said Chad Hart, an analyst at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University.

"There are different political pressures than in the past," Hart said. "While it makes it tougher, we always make it through. We will see a farm bill passed. It may not be this year; it may be next year," said Hart, who's closely monitoring the early congressional efforts to renew the farm bill.

How successful New Jersey lawmakers will be depends upon "their ability to build coalitions and voting blocs," he said.

Push for local produce

A big part of the push from Garden State lawmakers entails encouraging Americans to eat fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood harvested close to home in family-owned operations. About 15,000 New Jerseyans are farmers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The state is a national leader in growing blueberries, cranberries and peaches and a top producer of some vegetables like bell peppers and spinach. While some farms are larger than 1,000 acres, the average Garden State farmer works 81 acres, according to the state Department of Agriculture. In contrast, the average size of a farm in Iowa, a leading agricultural state, is 400 acres.

"The overall intent is helping the environment, helping the children's and the public's health, and supporting conservation programs and small farmers," said Amy Hansen, who owns an organic farm on the Warren County-Hunterdon County line and works for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. "I would love to see some of the billions of dollars taken from that subsidy program and put in conservation programs and nutrition."

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has introduced a bill to address those and other issues. It is co-sponsored by six other senators, including Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J. A similar House bill introduced by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., has 120 co-sponsors, including 11 of New Jersey's 13 congressmen.

However, the sticking point is cost. Under spending rules Democrats have adopted, new expenditures must be balanced by cuts elsewhere. It is not clear where the $3 billion in new spending Menendez's bill calls for would come from.

Menendez's bill seeks to boost organic-farming research and provide money to growers who want to farm organically, that is, nourish crops with natural substances such as manure-based compost instead of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It also seeks to increase spending for conservation.

Growers — organic or otherwise — would be allowed to supply food directly to local schools, hospitals and other institutions that now get prepackaged food from outside the state under several proposals circulating on Capitol Hill.

Such a "farm-to-cafeteria program" would particularly help New Jersey farmers who face stiff competition from huge corporate farms elsewhere, said Allen Hance, an agricultural analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

"What is the best way to preserve farms in New Jersey? Well, the best way is to build stronger links between local farms and hospitals, schools and the range of retail markets in urban and other communities," he said.

Tim Male, an analyst at Environmental Defense, said advocates are optimistic Congress will increase support to states like New Jersey outside the nation's agricultural belt because strong pressure is coming from congressional Democrats and Republicans from a variety of states. Additionally, the Bush administration has said farm policy is due for an overhaul.

Subsidies to growers of 20 commodity crops including wheat, barley, oats, peanuts, corn, soybeans, rice and cotton are the most controversial items in the current farm bill. Under this program of direct payments to growers, the federal government guarantees growers a set price regardless of how much they grow or how much the market will pay.

Hart said fruit and vegetable growers — the bulk of New Jersey's farmers — aren't eligible for these subsidies under current congressional mandates. Pressure is growing for Congress to change that.

Payments elude N.J.

About one-third of the $300 billion to $400 billion spent over the farm bill's five-year lifetime is devoted to direct payments, and most of that money goes to growers in Iowa, Texas, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Indiana, Arkansas, Missouri and California.

According to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group, New Jersey ranked 41st in the country in direct payment receipts from 2003 to 2005. A total of 1,105 Garden State farmers shared $16 million. In contrast, 117,000 farmers in Iowa, the top subsidy recipient, shared $3.7 billion over two years.

New Jersey farmers generally have better luck receiving land conservation subsidies, which require growers to sell development rights and preserve it as agricultural property to prevent real-estate developers from scooping up the properties to build homes or shopping malls.

Meanwhile, Congress also is hearing from Trenton and other state capitals.

New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus has joined forces with his counterparts in other Northeastern states to lobby for more agricultural help from Congress.

"Our argument is not that we need to have more than (someone else)," he said. "We're just as important as other regions of the country. This is what we want to focus on over the next five years — we want to preserve our farmland; we want to keep a viable, thriving agriculture; and we want to equip the next generation and welcome new people into agriculture."